


Unexpected

by MrProphet



Category: Arthurian Mythology
Genre: Gen, Minor Violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-22
Updated: 2017-04-22
Packaged: 2018-10-22 11:55:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 329
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10696506
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MrProphet/pseuds/MrProphet





	Unexpected

They attacked the castle at dawn, knowing that Arthur and all his highest knights were abroad at a great tournament, leaving only a handful of men at arms under the command of the King’s stepbrother to defend Camelot.

“Kay of the Wildwood,” the knights had laughed. “The forest bumpkin. Truly King Arthur is a fool to leave the defence of his throne to such an oaf.”

They rode hard across the drawbridge towards the open gate, levelling their spears at the footmen inside. They drove their horses on with their spurs, but still at the threshold the leading horses shied and reared, drawing back so suddenly that those following cannoned into them, sending the leading horses sprawling and stumbling and sliding over the line of salt and into the courtyard.

The knights struggled up, their leader’s right hand man falling to a footman’s spear before he could disentangle himself from his saddle. The steeds of the following knights trampled those in their path, surging over the mound of fallen men and armour and horseflesh and driving the footmen back.

For a moment it looked as though the attackers would yet prevail, but then another knight was among them, a man as tall as a tree, laying about him with a great staff and scattering men like ninepins, while their blades seemed to turn from him like switches against leather. He cast a knotted cord towards two men and they found themselves bound up in unbreakable bonds.

“What is this?” the leader of the attackers demanded.

The warrior paused in his dread work to face his enemy. A man tried to attack him, but Kay threw down his staff and the knight found himself unable to cross the line of the stick.

Sir Kay, greatest of the Enchanter-Knights of Britain, dwindled to the size of a man, but still held a mantle of strength around him. He drew the sword from his hip. “You were expecting something different?” he asked.


End file.
